Engines of Empire (Empire of Machines Book 1) by Max Carver

Author:Max Carver [Carver, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Neutron Press
Published: 2019-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Carthage

Audrey stepped toward the hijacked and crazily painted androids, the two nurses and the cop that had just rolled her brother out from behind the funhouse mirror. She had no idea what they might do to her, but likely scenarios seemed to involve torture and suffering in the short term, followed by eventual death.

She wanted to hate Zola for luring her here under false pretenses, not exactly explaining that Audrey was going to be traded away for Salvius. Audrey couldn't hate her, though. Salvius looked helpless, and Zola clung to the side of his gurney, weeping over his unresponsive face, clearly pained by his condition.

As Audrey tried to give herself up, Kright's grip on her arm tightened again. She looked back at him, and he gave her a grin, his sharp blue eyes bright.

“Salvius,” Zola moaned like a mourner at a funeral and collapsed onto his gurney rather dramatically.

She didn't land on top of him, though, but on the gurney's side rail. The gurney toppled sideways, and Salvius fell off, landing on the weeping Zola. They fell to the floor together.

Audrey started toward her fallen brother, but Kright, still gripping her, slung her away from the fallen gurney, as well as the nurse and cop androids.

Audrey cried out, falling as he pushed her toward a wall covered with a grungy, long-faded mural of zebras, lions, and hippos. The animals were fat and garishly dressed, eating ice cream and popcorn while pointing at humans in cages. A reverse zoo.

Audrey grunted as she hit the concrete floor with a bruising pain in her hip.

“Hey, watch it—” she began to snap at Kright. He shrugged off his long, tattered green jacket and dropped it on top of her. The coat pressed her to the floor, covering her up to her nose. It was heavy, like maybe it had a layer of armor concealed inside. And it was sweaty and musky, like maybe Kright wore a lot less cologne than the guys she was used to.

A loud popping sound had rung out from behind Audrey as Zola and Salvius fell, as Kright had grabbed her and pulled her aside. She'd barely had time to register it, but now a second loud pop rang out, followed closely by a third.

She saw the source of it. Dinnius was firing weird, chunky objects out of the large tube he carried, and suddenly Audrey knew why the tube looked distantly familiar. It was highly modified, but it was basically the kind of cheap air cannon used to shoot prizes into the crowd at parades and sporting events. At the World Games the previous year, she'd seen a giant one shoot exploding piñatas that rained candy and confetti onto the stadium crowd. Caracala Stadium had been at its full capacity, a quarter million people, for the entire month of the games.

Dinnius wasn't shooting out commemorative toys or advertising-laden shirts, though.

His air cannon fired three times as he swept it across the corridor. He wasn't doing much aiming, or

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